Artificial shortage of surface water: how can water demand management mitigate the scarcity problem? |
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| Authors: | Lenka Slavíková Ond?ej Vojá?ek Tomá? Smejkal |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Institute for Economic and Environmental Policy, Social and Economic Faculty, J.E. Purkyne University, Usti nad Labem, Czech Republic;2. Department of Management and Economics, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Czech Technical University in Prague, Prague, Czech Republic;3. Department of Strategy and International Cooperation in Energy, Ministry of Industry and Trade, Prague 1, Czech Republic |
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| Abstract: | Water demand management stresses the crucial roles of water user motivations in balancing actual water availability and competing human needs. This paper shows how the absence of such motivations influences artificial water scarcity, even in resource‐abundant countries, and how slight modifications to economic instruments (surface water charges in particular) might solve the problem. Data from the Czech Republic are used to illustrate the rationale behind the artificial scarcity problem and its solution. A model with feedback based on historical surface water abstraction data is built to simulate the impacts of different payment modification scenarios. |
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| Keywords: | access rights climate change policy pricing water supply and demand |
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